


Green

by wastefulreverie



Series: PhannieMay Shots 2018 [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ectoplasm, Family, Gen, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, ghost hunger, ghost vore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 20:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastefulreverie/pseuds/wastefulreverie
Summary: Maddie thought she heard a ghost in the basement, but what she found was so, so much worse.





	Green

 

Maddie glanced back at Jack with a tense understanding, before furtively preparing her weapon and cautiously trekking down into the basement.

Her breath hitched in her throat. Only moments before, there had been sounds of ghosts disputing in their laboratory, but all noise had suddenly fallen silent. Local ghost fights were a common misdemeanor, but a battle in  _her_ own basement? – that was a direct insult to the Fenton family. No protoplasmic scoundrels were going to go unpunished on her watch.

Jack followed close behind her, uncharacteristically light on his feet given the circumstances. He usually jumped at the chance to destroy ghosts, but something was different this time.... The sounds of fighting they had heard earlier were... beyond savage. Whatever ghost had invaded their home was vicious,  _bloodthirsty_ . Not something to be taken lightly.

When Maddie reached the bottom step, she subconsciously strengthened her grip on the Fenton Bazooka, before surveying the state of the lab. The basement itself was lit by the dim light of the portal, the swirling abyss shining ripples across the walls, allowing just enough luminescence to see.

Maddie's gaze was brought to the center of the lab, where she found herself staring with shocked, wide eyes. Her mind twisted into a frenzy of failed comprehension and utter disgust as she absorbed the scene before her.

A green – goop, liquid? – pooled across the linoleum floor, churning unattractively and tainting the air with a bitter stench. It took her a moment to realize that this substance was  _ectoplasm_ , her life's work. She'd never seen so much of it at once. What was even more horrendous was that the clotted viscosity of the otherworldly matter formed mounds that almost resembled severed limbs of something that had once been sentient. Maddie forced herself to watch as something leg shaped  _sizzled_ and dissolved into the monstrous puddle.

The last thing that caught Maddie's attention, and probably the most  _important_ , was a frail figure, sitting on it's knees and running it's fingers through the puddle like an excited child splashing in a kiddie pool. The figure, who's face was obscured from Maddie, was dripping in so much...  _green_ . It clumped in it's hair, in it's baggy clothes, and probably on it's face. And then, the figure brought it's hands to it's lips, and began to suck the dripping ectoplasm from it's fingers.

Maddie felt sick.

She hadn't realized she had taken a step forward until her boot came in contact with the puddle, splashing her HAZMAT suit with the same  _green_ and creating a soft SPLOSH.

And in that moment, the figure looked up from it's stupor to meet Maddie's eyes with fear. And she was scared too.

An attack of indescribable horror, overwhelming revulsion, and maternal concern plowed into her at once, striking her directly above the heart. She froze in place, sensing Jack's similar reaction beside her. This had to be some sort of ghostly illusion, there was no logical explanation for her child, Danny, to... to...

This was what any parent would call, 'the unspeakable'.

“D – Danny?” her voice cracked, hoarsely. Everything was heavy, and Maddie was nauseous.

“Mom... Dad...” his eyes darted between them, afraid, yet still containing a trance-like semblance. “I-” He looked down at his hands, which were still dripping green. “I don't-”

“What  _happened_ to you, Danno?” Jack asked softly. Maddie watched Danny cringe, as he forcefully squinted his eyes shut.

Danny inhaled and exhaled slowly, and continued to screw his eyes closed. When he spoke, it was in a bare whisper, causing Maddie to really concentrate on each syllable. “I... tried not to. I  _really_ ... tried. I never...” his voice cracked, and Maddie observed tears falling across his cheek, “never wanted to... but I  _did_ .” He opened his eyes, but didn't dare look at his parents, “I  _still_ want to. And I need... to finish.”

“Danny, I don't understand,” Maddie pleaded slowly. “You're  _scaring_ us, honey.”

Danny finally looked up from the floor, and the look in his eyes sent chills up Maddie's spine. He clenched his fists, fighting the shudders going down his frame, “I don't want to scare you. You – you need to leave. Just – let me...” his voice became desperate, “let me...  _feed_ .”

Like his soaked clothing and matted hair, Danny's eyes revealed an unmistakable, distinct,  _green_ . 

At a glance, it would appear that he was overshadowed, but both parents knew that no ghost could impersonate Danny this well; his eyes (though green) were undoubtedly his own, free of spectral possession. And that's what confused them. If Danny was himself... how could he be doing whatever he was doing, and why was he exhibiting ghostly symptoms if he wasn't overshadowed? Was it even possible for humans to (Maddie tried not to throw up) develop an addiction to ectoplasm? Consumption of ectoplasm was severely toxic!

Maddie was torn from her thoughts when Danny dangerously lurched forward and gave a guttural groan. She found herself slowly inching backwards as her son betrayed his humanity to do the absolutely unthinkable. Maddie's mind was oddly blank as she witnessed Danny cup his hands with ectoplasm, and willingly drink it like a man dying of unquenchable thirst.

Sharp, pinpricks of nausea pecked at her insides, and there was a voice shrieking inside her head compelling her to  _save her son, to make it stop, to do_ something.  _This was wrong, vile, inhuman!_ But she was captivated by the horror in front of her, letting morbid curiosity best her, like a child unable to look away from the scene of a brutal car crash. 

On the other hand, she was his mother, and she didn't do anything to intervene.  _What was wrong with her?_ This could be killing him, and all she could do was  _watch_ ! ( _watch as he licks and sucks and swallows the green from his fingers_ )

“Danny,” she murmured numbly, “ _please_ , stop....”

If he heard Maddie at all, he gave no indication. He continued to feast upon the contents of the floor, eating the corpse of a ghost. Maddie wanted to go to her son, to pull him away from the lab, demand answers, and order some kind of stomach pump, but a haunting feeling in her gut made her stop.

(Or maybe, it was the fear of her son himself that held her back.)

Danny continued to drink the ectoplasm from the remains of the slain ghost, seemingly forgetting that he was committing this taboo act in front of his parents, who were still staring at their son with a grisly magnetism.

After about a minute or two more of perverse indulgence, Danny ceased to drink any more ectoplasm. His mouth dripped with the otherworldly substance, and stained his skin green.... ( _so much green so much green so much_ ) Danny, who had apparently regained his sobriety, shakily brought himself to his feet, and looked at his parents in mortal shame.

His voice was hollow when he spoke, “I never wanted you to see that.” Maddie's heart sunk as she noticed he looked like he was about to weep.

“I... sometimes have to do things, that are really bad, if I want to live. I'm not really normal, and I haven't been for a while,” he confessed.

Danny looked at Jack and Maddie expectantly, fear of rejection hanging heavy on his shoulders. He took an uneven breath and hesitantly continued. “I can explain everything, whenever you want – tonight, even. But now that you know how messed up I am...” he choked, “you have no reason to even see me as your son anymore, I'm just some freak of nature... aren't I? I don't want to... eat ectoplasm. It disgusts me, but whenever the hunger gets bad, I lose control.”

He looked down at his pale hands, which were the only part of his body licked clean from ectoplasm. “Please don't hate me. Please don't kill me. I want to move  _past_ this,” he begged.

Danny closed his eyes, and began to cry. For a moment, Maddie imagined that his tears were green too.

“Mom? Dad?” he whispered through quiet cries.

Finally, something broke Maddie from her abject petrification. She glided forward, careful not to slip in what was left of the puddle, and stood inches away from Danny. She slowly wrapped her arms around him, ignoring all of the green stains, and soothingly rubbed circles on Danny's back. She was still repulsed by her son's gruesome actions and gross appearance, but understood that she couldn't let her disdain be evident. Danny was hurting, in more ways that one, and any failure to provide reassurance could permanently damage him, and even though she was disgusted, she still loved her son.

Even if, she could never look at him in the same way ever again.

“We'll get through this,” Maddie breathed in his ear. “It won't be easy, and we can help whatever it is you're going through.”

Danny wept more. “I – I love you, Mom.”

Jack came forward, and joined the hug. He too, fought his internal revulsion.

“We love you too, Danny.”

 

 


End file.
